After airing some of my early short stories here on Blazes Boylan’s Book Bazaar, I decided to take the plunge and publish the whole back catalogue.The new collection is called Pud’s Legacy. In addition to those old stories, it includes as a bonus feature my acclaimed long short story, The Hitchhiker. Why? Well, to paraphrase The Big Lebowski, that story really ties the collection together, man.Anyway, click here for the full gen on it. You may want to give it a punt.

Forget the snow. Imagine Paris in the springtime – 1980’s style.To transport you there, here’s a thirty year-old short story of mine. Called The Room with a View, the story introduces a brand new sleuth. She’s young and blonde and blue-eyed. And she’s very clever.Enjoy!

This week has been a good week for exposure. In fact, I’ve basked for three whole days in the sun of the virtual world. In case you missed it all, here’s what happened.On Wednesday, I was a guest on The Undercover Soundtrack, the fabulous website hosted by acclaimed author Roz Morris. Here’s how Roz introduced my slot:

“My guest this week had never realised his fiction was so closely tied to music, nor how much that meant it reflected the landmarks of his own life. Through significant songs he has peeled back the years to channel aspects of his family and upbringing, to flesh out the characters in his short stories and novels. He is McStorytellersfounder Brendan Gisby and he will be sharing his Undercover Soundtrack on Wednesday.”

“The Hitchhiker ostensibly tells you the story of a young working class Scottish man in the early 1970’s who goes on his own small ‘tour’ – one small step for man, one big adventure for our ‘hero’. But there’s much more to it than this. The opening preamble ‘About the story’ gives a hint when it says ‘Have you ever looked back and wondered if you had achieved anything worthwhile in your life, anything worth remembering?’ Because that is the real journey in this story. While the ‘journey’ to the Highlands is described in close and beautifully astute detail, which will be instantly recognisable to anyone who travelled those parts of Scotland in that era (but especially if they were of the same class and so stayed in the same sort of places, travelled on public transport, etc.), it is the story behind the story that is of just as much interest.”